When lifting or moving some objects, it may be necessary or best to engage and support such objects at locations offset or eccentric from their respective centers. This is particularly true with respect to objects having a central portion and multiple legs, lobes or other portions extending outwardly from the central portion. If such objects are supported during lifting and moving only beneath their central portions and are not supported beneath the outwardly extending portions at locations eccentric to the central portion, these objects may tend to become unstable and move unexpectedly, thereby possibly causing damage to the objects or harm to persons or other things in the vicinity of the objects.
One example of an object having a central portion and multiple portions extending outwardly from the central portion is a convection adapter used in some Kamado-style cookers to convert the cooker from using direct heating of food items being cooked to using indirect heating of food items being cooked. Generally, Kamado-style cookers include a lower portion in which fuel is burned to produce heat and hot gases, and an upper portion which aids in retaining the heat generated in the lower portion and that is present in the hot gases. Traditionally, a cooking grid is located within the lower portion to receive and support food items thereon during cooking and to allow exposure of the food items to the rising hot gases. As the hot gases rise from the lower portion to the upper portion in a predominantly vertical direction, the hot gases pass through slots in the cooking grid and come into direct contact with the food items. Heat from the hot gases is transferred to the food items through such direct contact, thereby cooking the food items. When configured and operated in this manner, Kamado-style cookers function somewhat like conventional grills with cooking of food items resulting substantially from direct contact with rising hot gases.
When a convection adapter is positioned with a Kamado-style cooker, foot items are cooked indirectly by causing hot gases to flow around and envelope the food items using a method similar to that of a convection oven. As illustrated in the top perspective, pictorial view of FIG. 1, a Kamado-style cooker 10 having a lower portion 12 formed by a wall 14 includes a fire ring 16 resting atop a fire box (not visible) in which fuel is burned. The fire ring 16 has a plurality of notches 18 for receiving and supporting a convection adapter 20 that may be inserted into or removed from the cooker 10 as desired by a user to convert the cooker 10 between cooking food items through direct contact with hot gases and cooking food items indirectly with hot gases flowing around the food items.
The convection adapter 20 comprises a disc-like portion 22 from which a plurality of legs 24 extend in different radial directions. When positioned in a Kamado-style cooker 10 as seen in FIG. 1, each leg 24 cooperatively resides within a respective notch 18 of the fire ring 16. Together, the convection adapter 20 and fire ring 16 define multiple channels 26 therebetween with each channel 26 having a cross-sectional shape corresponding to a portion of an annulus. A cooking grid may be placed atop the legs 24 of the convection adapter 20 for receiving and supporting food items directly thereon for cooking. Alternatively, a pan, dish, sheet or other cooking vessel containing food items for cooking may be placed on the disc-like portion 22.
During use of the Kamado-style cooker 10 with the convection adapter 20 in place, some of the hot gases rising from the fire box directly contact the lower side of the disc-like portion 22 of the convection adapter 20, causing the adapter 20 and any pan, dish, sheet or other cooking vessel thereon to become hot. Other rising hot gases flow through channels 26 and around food items whether present directly on a cooking grid or present in a pan, dish, sheet or other cooking vessel, to indirectly cook the food items.
If the user of the cooker 10 desires to cook certain food items directly after having cooked other food items indirectly using the convection adapter 20, the user must remove the adapter 20 from the cooker 10 by lifting the adapter 20 upward and then out of the cooker 10. Alternatively, if the user of the cooker 10 desires to cook certain food items indirectly after having cooked other food items directly without the convection adapter 20, the user must move the adapter 20 over the cooker 10 and then lower it onto the fire ring 16. Unfortunately, the fire ring 16 and cooker wall 14 will be hot in either case, increasing the possibility that the user may be burned or may mishandle the adapter 20 while attempting to insert the adapter 20 into or remove the adapter 20 from the cooker 10.
There is, therefore, a need for a hand tool and method for moving objects (including, but not limited to, a convection adapter for a Kamado-style cooker) from above that need support at eccentric locations thereof during such moving, and that solves these and other problems, issues, deficiencies or shortcomings of existing apparatuses and methods.